Rye Castle ghost hunt – 17-9-2011

When I first had a look around this venue in the day time, as I do with all the venues, I felt that there was something different about it, something that I couldn’t put my finger on, or even describe, but I knew it was going to be good and a good ghost hunt. Fortunately I wasn’t wrong, it was a brilliant venue with loads of atmosphere and some useful evidence recorded. Since we were limited in numbers, which as it turns out was definitely a good thing, the evidence we all saw, felt and heard was second to none.

The whole group was split into two smaller groups, I headed up to the top floor of the tower whilst the other headed over to the Women’s Tower (their report is separate)

Whilst Ted (our host and volunteer guide for the evening) was giving us a brief outline of the history of the tower and its usage over the years, I could distinctly smell gunpowder, which at the time I attributed to the Museum, it was only later that I told Ted and he confirmed that there was nothing in the Museum that should have smelt of gunpowder.

It didn’t take long from when we started a séance circle for a male energy to step forward, his name was Percival from 1730s he was about 20yrs old 5’7″ in height and was a prison warden or someone who guarded people. He wore a red jacket with a single set of buttons down the front and was wearing a navy blue cap with a gold trim adorned with a badge, not dissimilar to a modern French Gendarme (Policeman). He also wore a belt which had many keys attached and about 12 pieces of white cord like material hanging from his belt. (I have no idea what these are).

He instantly started to push and pull various people in the group and move various peoples arms, our EMF metres were on the outside of the circle and began flashing up to the maximum almost instantly. At one stage everyone heard what sounded like someone moving some heavy piece of furniture on the ground floor, but then Ted (who was sitting in the room) began to investigate and we then heard several more bangs and came to the conclusion that it was fireworks, however the first noise sounded more like it was in the building, but we cannot rule out the fireworks.

Whilst everyone was being rocked or pushed in the circle another energy stepped closer, just behind Graham, which came as no great surprise to him as he was already feeling something behind him. This energy was female, a rather shy girl about 17 years old, but touched Graham’s neck and back several times which made Graham quietly surprised and a bit jumpy, as she didn’t affect any other guest. During this time a spirit energy (I’m not sure who) touched my upper arm, as if they were trying to squeeze past me. Louise also had an energy who was touching her hair and head, Louise described it as if someone was running their fingers through her hair, like a head massage.

I became aware that behind Sean there was yet another male energy but he wasn’t a nice energy, not because of any malice, but he was just unhappy or grumpy and wanted anyone near him to feel the same. He was a very tall man about 6’7″ in height, roughly aged about 35 and wore a basic white shirt with blue strips. He didn’t really say much, just grunts and groans. He did however make the person who stood in front of him feel strange and would exert massive pressure onto them, as if he were pushing them down from the shoulders. He also had this strange coldness about him as the temperature at this end of the room felt much colder than anywhere else. Ted even came over and felt the difference in temperature from inside the circle to the temperature outside the circle and he confirmed there was definitely a real difference. We had begun to rotate the circle, so that everyone could stand in the cold spot and experience that energy, whilst we were doing this Louise exclaimed that she had just heard a women walk behind her, she knew it was a woman because of the sound of the clothing. But it wasn’t a physical person, as Ted (who was the only person not in the séance circle) was sitting on a bench on the other side of the room. This was another female energy, a lady of the night dressed in a maroon/purple dress, who just passed us by.

This room proved to be very useful and gave us many experiences.

After a short break, we swapped locations with the other team, the Women’s tower is a very small tower with an upstairs room and a downstairs room. We headed upstairs, almost instantly a female energy came forward she called herself Maam and she described herself as First Yeomantry, she took an instant dislike to Sean and proceeded to inflict some pain on him. Everyone else was being pushed and gently rocked. The atmosphere however changed almost instantly and I felt an ebergy standing behind me, he was a tall man, about 6’2″ called John Chevalier/Chevaux and he seemed to be the person who cleaned up human excrement. Although I could feel his energy all around me, I was generally feeling fine, I had a headache but nothing more. Then Sean said that my nose looked very different, much bigger and knobbly, Graham also noticed that my face seemed to change, it had become more rounded and fatter. I could obviously not see this, but nevertheless I could feel some odd sensations around my forehead, nose, cheek bones and chin. Most of the group could see that my features were changing and at one point many could not look at me because I was scaring them! Nevertheless I was still sounding like myself (I don’t often do trance, as it scares the guests) so I voluntarily stepped into the centre of the circle to get rid of this energy. He then moved behind Graham and started to do the same thing. I exited the circle and stood alone outside to lure him away from the guests and to give some protection to Graham, but in that short amount of time Graham was feeling dizzy, drained and as he described it, the feeling the day after a heavy drinking session. (Not quite with it as well!). When I re-joined the circle I almost jumped, as I saw in a physical way the back of the spirit energy John walk past me, past Debbie and through the wall behind Graham. This made me jump, because I wasn’t expecting to see this.

After this episode we were about to take a quick break but a child energy arrived and began to twirl Debbie, like a musical box, to and fro for a few minutes. I could not describe her, as I couldn’t see her properly, all I know is that she was about 8 or 9 years old and liked Debbie.

After our little break, we walked into the ground floor room of the Women’s Tower, Debbie who had stayed outside came rushing in, as she said she had heard someone walking on the gravel (no one could get into the yard as the gate was locked, the only people who could have entered the garden were the other group). Graham then decided he would investigate and he too after a few minutes came rushing back in as he had also heard the same noise. I then investigated but did not hear anything until I had turned my back and had just entered the ground floor room.

I started recording with my Audio recorder to see if those noises that we could all hear (from time to time) could be recorded, but alas none of the recordings have any sounds of footsteps or the sound of someone walking on gravel.

However during this period we tried various EVP (ghost voice) recordings and some tapping experiments. At the time we all heard the taps, but like the footsteps, nothing can be heard on the recordings. The EVP experiment on the other hand was very successful, out of the 20 or so recordings there are about 4 really good examples. Two of which are:-

One of the strangest phenomena’s of the night is the lack of photographs, usually in very active places we have untold amount of photographs, with orbs, mists and other anomalies, however this venue out of the five people taking photos only four of us have anything unexplained and the odd thing is that three of us only have one orb photo each.

A very enjoyable night for all that attended and a location that I would like to return to in 2012, as this venue is perfect for a small group.

We would like to thank Peter from the Rye Museum Association for allowing us to investigate Rye Castle (Ypres Tower) and Ted who watched the proceedings on the night.